The lower house of the Tasmanian Parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the Relationships Act of 2003 , recognizing same-sex marriages and civil unions registered in foreign countries and other Australian states. The amendment was aimed at ending discrimination against same-sex couples and was supported by all but three representatives of the 25-member [...]

The Indian Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will reconsider a 1996 ruling allowing former employees of US chemical producer Union Carbide accused in relation to the 1984 Bhopal chemical spill disaster to be charged with negligence instead of culpable homicide. Seven men were convicted in June on charges of “death by negligence” and sentenced [...]

Federal judges responsible for handling Social Security disability claims and immigration hearings are petitioning for increased security measures after data released Monday shows they have been the targets of numerous threats . According to the report released by the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) and the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) , security [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the US government’s authority to conduct “targeted killings” against suspected terrorists. The ACLU and CCR allege that US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki , suspected of being a member of al Qaeda in Yemen, was placed on “government kill [...]

The Sri Lankan cabinet on Monday approved proposed constitutional reforms that would permit current President Mahinda Rajapaksa to seek an unlimited number of terms in office. The current number of terms for the executive, codified within Chapter VII of the Sri Lankan Constitution , is limited to two. The proposed amendment now moves to the [...]

Defense lawyers for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba argued before the International Criminal Court (ICC) Monday that Bemba lacks the financial resources to ensure a fair trial over war crimes he allegedly committed in 2002 and 2003. Bemba’s lawyers claim that prosecutors have seized all of Bemba’s assets and that [...]

A forthcoming UN report claims that troops from Rwanda and allied rebels committed crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that could be classified as genocide if proven by the appropriate court, according to media reports. The draft report, first publicized by French newspaper Le Monde last week, documents the extreme violence in the [...]

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Friday called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to remove any mention of Arizona and its passage of SB 1070 from a human rights report issued by the State Department. The report, submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as part of a universal review, discussed the passage [...]

Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi has been named by multiple Iranian news sources as one of three top judicial officials who were suspended in connection with the torture deaths of three detained protesters, multiple Iranian media outlets reported Monday. The suspensions were announced last week , but the names of the officials had been withheld. According [...]

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan on Sunday urged Kenya to reaffirm its commitment to the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it welcomed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to a celebration for the country’s adoption of a new constitution last week. In his statement, Annan expressed his “surprise” at the presence of al-Bashir and called on Kenya [...]